One of the old rules of newspapering is that journalists should report the news, and never become the news. That still may be true on some levels — I have never had a call asking me to bail one of my reporters out of jail, and I don’t want to get one — but it’s changing.
Today, the thought is that good journalism should inform the public and lead the conversation on how to move forward on community issues.
We were just dipping our toes into concept this when the pandemic set in. Now, we’re back, and more committed. In fact, this community forum aspect is one of the pillars of our Community Funded Journalism initiative.
We’re starting our series, called Columbian Conversations, at 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 1 at the Kiggins Theatre, 1011 Main St. in downtown Vancouver. Columbian reporter Kelsey Turner will moderate a diverse panel offering five perspectives on our community’s homelessness crisis, and Innovation Editor Will Campbell will present a short documentary that frames our local situation.
The panelists are Jamie Spinelli, the city’s homelessness response coordinator; Sesany Fennie-Jones of the Council for the Homeless; Charles Hanset of the Recovery Cafe of Clark County; Courtney Ligman, who currently lives at one of the city’s Safe Stay communities; and Bob McElroy, founder and chief executive of the Alpha Project, which provides shelter and services to unhoused people in the San Diego area.
The timing of this event is intriguing, as it comes less than a month after Vancouver voters are being asked to renew and expand the city’s affordable housing levy. This could be the first community conversation around that issue since the results of that levy are known.
As Will noted in the advertising for the event, “There’s no better or more interesting way to understand the complexities of homelessness than to hear about it live from people living it and people who are shaping the programs to prevent it. Our live panel will help guide your understanding and answer questions about the Clark County citizens experiencing homelessness whom you see and don’t see.”
The program is offered free to the public thanks to our sponsors. Riverview Bank is the presenting sponsor, and other sponsors are the Vancouver Housing Authority and Waste Connections of Washington.
Because we are new at this and there is only so much room at the Kiggins, we are asking readers to go online to get free advance tickets at columbian.ticketbud.com. If there are tickets left over, you can get them at the door beginning at 4:30 p.m. March 1.
After we get done with this one, we’ll offer more events around our journalism. It’s part of what our industry is calling Solutions Journalism, where we report on a community problem, investigate possible solutions and organize a forum where people can discuss the ideas. Look for our next event in the late spring-early summer.
I like our new app
I’m headed out on a cruise in a few weeks, so I will be keeping up on the news by using the Columbian app on my smartphone. We changed vendors a few months ago and made a major upgrade to the app at the same time. You can download it from your app store.
The upgraded version makes it a lot easier to sort through and find the stories you like. It’s easy to save them. And you can have it alert you when important news breaks (we know you are busy, so we won’t fill your day with spam like some other sites do).
Best of all, you can read our ePaper, the faithful digital replica of our print newspaper. Just tap on any story to open it to a size large enough to read on the screen of your phone or tablet. If you haven’t activated your digital subscription, go to columbian.com/digital.
